Welcome to my blog! I have always considered myself a Magpie, gathering a little of this and a little of that to influence my own ideas. Add to this the fact that my crafting interests are very diverse and you get... The Magpie's Miscellany!

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Tuesday, 24 January 2012

The Teddy Bear's Picnic

My niece loves to have tea parties with her "baby" Max and her other toys. She is a very girly girl and has firm opinions about the colour pink and who should (and more importantly should not!) wear it.

For Christmas I decided to make her a picnic blanket so that she and her friends could really dine in style!

I bought a remanant of pink fleece that gave me a square one metre in size and splurged on some Tinkerbell blanket binding and webbing that was such a cute mauve colour that I couldn't resist.

I read a load of tutorials on putting blanket binding on but I have to say that I found it surprisingly difficult. No matter how I pinned or tacked it it seemed to ruckle up as I sewed. After I had finished swearing, huffing and puffing I unpicked it and tried again. After about three repeats of this with the air turning progressively more blue with each one I finally got the best results I could (but definitely not perfect) by using basting glue.

I really wanted the blanket to fold up into a sweet carry case so I cut another piece of fleece from my remenant and edged it with oridnary double fold bias binding, which was a LOT easier than the blanket binding.

I attached the webbing in two carry handles and some at the sides to fasten with Velcro. I ironed on some transfer letters to spell her name and stitched that to the front. Then I stitched the rectangle to the blanket. Voila, the Teddy bears were ready for their picnic...

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And we're ready for the off...

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Stage One of the unfolding process.

Stage Two.

Stage Two from the underside.

Today's the day the Teddy Bears have their picnic!

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I hasten to add that all props used in these photos are mine, not hers (Yes I know it's sad that I have Teddy Bears but at least it's my best china!).

She loved the blanket and I am told that she has been going on many "days out" in her play Camper Van with toys and a picnic! That makes me very happy!